Jack inspires Brothers to win

Normal, Sports
Source:

The National, Tuesday 26th March 2013

 FORMER Pukpuk Jack Maraha showed he has not lost his magic yet in an inspiring performance for Brothers to see them win the weekly Capital Rugby Union (CRU) competition at the Monier Bava Park on Sunday.

Brothers beat Spartans 22-19. 

 Maraha, although a shade slower than he once used to be, jumped and danced his way over the two days to pull off a surprise victory over some of the more favoured clubs.

The man from Gulf opened the scoring in the cup final in typical fashion after darting through two weary defenders to bring the crowd to their feet.

Spartans, who had earlier caused the upset of the weekend to knock favourites Harlequins out in the preliminary final, came back firing with two tries in succession to Vagi Vagi and Johnson Langogo to bring the Murray Barracks men back in contention.

However Maraha, who was by then on his last legs, squirmed his way through his younger rivals to set up Clint Kut coming off the right-flank for a deceptive run to score to give them a two-point buffer at half-time.

That was the last of Maraha, who did not return in the second-half. 

Nelson Kauna inspired by the fightback gave Bros a further lead after they were camped inside the latter’s 22 in the opening minutes.

Spartans kept up the pressure at the breakdowns and began to dominate the rucks and finally an opening came through for Robert Lamboku to equalise with a great try to level the scores at 19-19.

However, with only seconds on the clock from the re-start, Brothers David Mallan snared the win with a plucky field-goal from 20m out.

In the minor play-offs, Harlequins nailed Motuan Warriors 35-5 in Plate division and Wanderers edged out Defence 20-15 in the Bowl.

University Piggies was knocked out by Wanderers in the Bowl semi-finals, Juggernauts by Harlequins in the Plate semi-finals, Nova by Spartans in the Cup semi-final and LaSallians unlucky in the Cup semi-final as well to Brothers. 

The sevens will end this weekend. The 15s season will start the following weekend.